This section is intended to introduce various aspects of the art, which may be associated with exemplary embodiments of the present techniques. This discussion is believed to assist in providing a framework to facilitate a better understanding of particular aspects of the present techniques. Accordingly, it should be understood that this section should be read in this light, and not necessarily as admissions of prior art.
The process of planning a well site for the development of a hydrocarbon field involves several discrete decisions. Specifically, the well site locations and the reservoir targets for the available slots in the drill center are selected. In addition, the trajectory of each well within the well site is planned such that certain engineering constraints are met. Such engineering constraints may relate to environmental issues, issues regarding the safe distance around the wells, issues regarding the costs of the facilities and the drilling process for the well site, or the like. For example, engineering constraints relating to environmental issues may specify that the well site location is to avoid certain obstacles, such as pipelines, roads, buildings, hazardous areas, environmentally protected areas, and the like. In addition, engineering constraints relating to issues regarding the safe distance around the wells may specify that the well site location is to be at least a specified distance away from existing wells to avoid potential collisions. Therefore, the main objective during the planning of a well site may be to maximize the total production output by selecting a suitable well site location and suitable reservoir targets, while meeting relevant engineering constraints and minimizing costs. However, planning a well site that meets this objective is often a complex and time-consuming process.
According to current techniques, a well site is planned and built as resources become available. First, a set of potential reservoir targets is selected. Second, a well site location is chosen at an appropriate surface location so that the horizontal reach to each reservoir target does not exceed a predefined distance. Third, the drill center for the well site is designed, and a set of well trajectories starting from the slots in the drill center are designed based on well path building algorithms and engineering constraints. However, according to such techniques, the user has to manually select the reservoir targets that are reachable from the slots in the drill center. Moreover, if the drill center has to be relocated to a different well site location, some of the previously selected reservoir targets may be more than the predefined horizontal distance from the well site location and, thus, may not meet the engineering constraints. In addition, some of the previously selected reservoir targets may not meet other engineering constraints, such as constraints relating to total measured depth, dogleg severity, or the like.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,549,879 to Cullick et al. describes a method for determining well locations in a three-dimensional reservoir model while satisfying various constraints. Such constraints include minimum inter-well spacing, maximum well length, angular limits for deviated completions, and minimum distance from reservoir and fluid boundaries. In the first stage, the wells are placed assuming that the wells can only be vertical. In the second stage, the vertical wells are examined for optimized horizontal and deviated completions. This process may be used to provide an initial set of well locations and configurations.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,096,172 to Colvin et al. describes a system and method for the automatic selection of targets for well placement using two-dimensional matrices that represent a three-dimensional model of the reservoir. Specifically, a number of values in a three-dimensional model are filtered to eliminate values that are below a threshold, and a first matrix that represents a two-dimensional model of the reservoir is developed based on values in the three-dimensional model. A second matrix is then developed from the first matrix using a distance-weighted sum of the values, and target locations are selected from the second matrix based on the distance-weighted sum of the values.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2008/0300793 by Tilke et al. describes a hybrid evolutionary algorithm technique for automatically calculating well and drainage locations in a hydrocarbon field. The hybrid evolutionary algorithm technique includes planning a set of wells for a static reservoir model using an automated well planner tool, and then selecting a subset of the wells based on dynamic flow simulation using a cost function that maximizes recovery or economic benefit.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2010/0125349 by Abasov et al. describes a system and method for developing a plan for multiple wellbores with a reservoir simulator based on actual and potential reservoir performance. Connected grid cells in a gridded reservoir model that meet particular criteria are identified, and a drainable volume indicator is created for each group of connected grid cells. An adjustment value for each drainable volume is calculated, and each drainable volume that has an adjustment value up to a predetermined maximum adjustment value is designated as a completion interval grid. Contiguous completion interval grids are then connected to form one or more completion intervals.
All of the techniques described above provide for the planning of a well site. However, such techniques do not provide flexibility during the planning process but, rather, automatically plan the well site based on predefined conditions. However, in many cases, it may be desirable to provide a dynamic well site planning process that responds to user interaction.